Very noisy hard drive on 8460p

Making a whirring humming sound from under base. Not the fan. Started after I downloaded Hardware diagnostics to the partition.

If it's a late 2012 mini, you should still be in your 90 day window to take advantage of Apple phone support. The numbers are here.

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New iMac: Screen Issues and Noisy Hard Drive

Hello,
I'm writing regarding my new 27" iMac which I purchased just under a week ago (spec: 3.1GHz Intel Core i5, 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM).
When I got my iMac home and unboxed it, all was fine, however once I had began to install some applications and use them, I noticed an unusual issue with the screen. I had a Skype window open on the left hand side of my screen, with an ongoing chat, Obviously, the chat 'stream' was moving, but the menu items on the far left remained the same. The iMac had been on for about 10mins, with the Skype window open for the same duration. After which, I opened iPhoto, and made it full screen, filling my screen with a dark grey background. I could still see the outline of the text from my Skype window through the iPhoto window. Thinking the window may have been semi-transparent, I closed the Skype window, however when I re-fullscreened iPhoto, the test was still there, as if it was burnt into the screen.
I understand the concept of screen burn, but surely this shouldn't happen after just 10mins? It's nothing permanent, as it fades away again within another 5mins or so, but it is annoying knowing that I can't leave a window open for very long without worrying I will have text burnt into my screen for a period of time. As a graphic designer, I could be working on images that are dark, and likewise, I don't want to see remains of my chat or emails over the top of my design work.
Has anyone else had this issue? Is this an issue that can be repaired by myself (eg. installing a firmware update, although I have all the latest updates from Software Update)? Or should I just return my iMac to the store and get them to look at it? I'm worried that if I take it back, they may fail to see the issue, as the lighing is a lot different in the store to at home.
The other issue I am experiencing is I have a very noisy hard drive, that seems to click and make a grumbling noise rather a lot. Obviously at times when the computer is working hard, this is to be expected (I think), although most of the time it is grumbling away whilst I'm just browsing in Safari with one tab open.
Has anyone else experienced this issue, taken it back and has a successful replacement? I've read that it could be to do with Mac OS X Lion, because people have reported that their hard drive ran silently on Snow Leopard but has got noisier with Lion. Should I wait for a Lion update before returning it? Other than the issues above, everything is fine.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to someone being able to shine some light on my issues.

Thanks for the advice.
Today, I returned my iMac to the Apple Premium Resellers where I purchased it. The helpful chap there looked at my screen and acknowledged the issue, before giving me a brand new iMac.
My previous model came with Snow Leopard pre-installed, which I upgraded to Lion. This new, second iMac is a relatively new one as it has Lion pre-installed. Feeling hopeful, I've just arrived home and unpackaged my new computer.
The result? EXACTLY the same issue. My Twitter window on the far left of my display has been open for no longer than about 7 or 8 mins, and I can clearly see the display pictures from my follwees burnt into the screen when I full screen a dark app like Snow Leopard.
I'm wondering whether this is a Lion issue? Should I wait for a software update before returning it again? It's not something that's going to be annoying on a day-to-day basis, but now that I know it's doing it, I can't help but keep checking when I open iPhoto.
PEOPLE WITH NEW 27" iMAC's: Would you please perform the following test for me and let me know the results?
1. Open up a white backgrounded application, such as Twitter, Skype, or Safari.
2. Leave it on screen (anywhere, but far left seems to be worst) for about 5 to 10mins.
3. Open up iPhoto with it's grey full screen background, or set your wallpaper to a flat colour dark grey.
4. Now minimise the white backgrounded windows, and switch to a grey background with no windows in front of it.
5. Look carefully at your screen: can you still see an outline of/text from the window in the position that it was, like it's burnt into the screen?
Thanks in advance to anyone that can perform this for me.

Noisy Hard Drive IS NORMAL!

I just got back from my local Apple Store, where I exchanged my less than 2 week old 5G iPod because of the clunking/clicking hard drive noise that many people have been noticing.
They had many 5G iPods on display, so I went to each one, loaded up the U2 video, and listened closly to see if I could hear the clicks of the hard drive while it works to load up the video. Guess what? They ALL had the same clicking noisy hard drive, same as the one I had just returned. And also, my new one does the same exact thing.
So there you have it. Guess this is just the normal operation of these new hard drives. Now, the noise I am referring to is the clicking/clunking sound when you load up a video file or a photo album. This sound is completely normal. So, no worries! Enjoy that new iPod!!
Cheers...Kerry

it's a hard drive. of course its goining to make noise, doesn't your computer make noise when it starts up? Just about every kind of hard drive makes noise, its normal.

Powerbook G4 noisy hard drive- is it coming to an end?

I have had my powerbook for four years and it has done hard work on the road in inhospitable places for most of that time. Now that I'm back home, I've noticed that it has started to sound like a lawnmower (or is that some kind of fan inside?) and it gets very hot.
Should I be preparing for the worst, or is this normal?
Many thanks, Rose

Hello Rose,
What temperature is hot? Download and install a free widget called, iStat Pro. It will appear in the dashboard and give the operation temps of many parts of your machine. The Powerbook's normal operating temp should max out at around 65-67'C. This is normal! As for the noise: When hard drives start to fail they do get noisy. There is a very distinctive whirring sound as the drive starts up and the machine will become sluggish. There is also the high pitched screaming sound as the drive fails and stalls. However, if you think the sound is just that of noisy fans, it is much more likely to be just that. Have you ever opened the machine and cleaned it? When you do, you are sure to find a major (and slightly disgusting) build up of dust and grit around the fans making them noisy and inefficient. You can try cleaning them although, the noise may not go away because the damage has already been done to the small bearings controlling them, thus making them noisy.
Should I be preparing for the worst
Regardless of the symptoms of this event you should always be prepared for the worst when it comes to computers. All computer users should develop stringent back-up plans. I use a collection of large capacity USB flash drives (8GB) as my back-up database. As long as they are stored correctly their shelf life is much greater than that of DVD-R discs (5 years max) and much more stable than an external hard drive (life expectancy unknown and unpredictable). It may be a little more expensive to use flash drives as back-up, but can you put a price on the digital memories of the first decade of your kids' lives?

I need to know what the part number is for a replacment hard drive chasis - 8460p

I need to order a replacment chassis that the hard drive screws into for the 8460p, does anybody know the part number for this piece?

Hi:
You are going to have to contact HP for that--1-800-334-5144.
The only parts listed in the service manual are for the actual hard drives.
Paul

NB510 - noisy hard drive

Hi
I have just treated myself to a brand new nb510-11j and having owned and loved my old nb250 I thought this may be a better replacement as my boyfrind kept telling me the nb250 wasn't going to last forever and I should upgrade.
I recieved the new one yesterday and registered the warranty with toshiba and I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. The new one makes a low "rattle" noise from the minute I turn it on till it gets switched off. I assume it to be the hard drive but is this normal ? My mb250 ran pretty much silently and you only heard the hard drive kick in every now and then. Also it felt "warm" after a couple of hours, not boiling like an old laptop but just warm and my OLD computer never gets warm so I am a tad concerned about this too. I just need to know if it is normal or should I send it back whilst I still can ?
The other question was if I get this one upgraded to 2 Ram (which I did on the 250) is the toshiba warranty still valid ?
Many thanks
Jen x

To be honest my NB520 is pretty quiet and I dont hear anything. Im very happy with my machine. It is quiet, run perfectly and battery life is excellent. Friend of mine has NB550D and it is also extremely quiet.
As Akuma already wrote clicking noise on some HDDs is pretty normal but very annoying.
I dont want to make some panic here but I think you should exchange it and compare it with HDD on other machine.
RAM upgrade will not cancel warranty and this option is for notebook owners. My NB520 has 4GB inside.
Please post some feedback.

Noisy Hard Drive

I have the newest PB G4 12" and once in a while my hard drive spins so loud I can hear it from across the room. It tends to happen when I move the computer while it is on and the screen is open. When it spins that loudly, the computer freezes with the color wheel and then when it "calms" down the color wheel goes away. This is the second hard drive for this PB already. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks

You really shouldn't move the computer around while it is awake and the hard drive is spinning. Think of your hard drive as a little record player. If you were to carry a record player accross the room while it was spinning you'd expect it to skip... same idea pretty much.
Are those noises of the metal-on-metal grinding variety? As with all suspect hard drives you should backup your data. This cannot be overstated.
I dunno what it is but I've replaced more hard drives in 12" powerbooks than any other model...

Very noisy optical drive

Hi
Received my new Mac Pro a few day ago and have noticed that the optical drive likes to go into fits of absolute horrendous noise - I mean it sounds like its chewing the disc up inside. Sometimes it lasts a couple of minutes but other times it can last for over 10 (very noticable during the fresh install of Leopard). It definitly doesn't sound like a normal 'read' sound and is driving me crazy!
Is this the normal behaviour of a Mac Pro (my iMac and MacBook drives never sounded like this) or is this something that should be returned to Apple?
Thanks, Chris

Similar to a poster above, when I inserted a disk into my new Mac Pro 2009, it would churn and make a racket where I thought the disk was rattling around inside the caddy!! I slid out the optical drive mounting, loosened the four screws holding the drive into the bracket, then tightened them again, and lo - a near silent drive for a few minutes work.

What Is The VERY FIRST Hard Drive MP3 Play

I've heard several rumors as to who made the first one, some say its iPod, someone else says Creative, another said Rio, so who had the first?
and what's the name of that particular model?

I have to agree with jakeames. The PJB00 from Hango which licensed it from Compaq was the first hard dri've based MP3 player on the market. But a few months later IBM released the first Microdri've which had capacities from something like 300MB upto GB. A company named i2Go was the first company to purchase the dri'ves from IBM and has its eGo players with them. Read more <a href='http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2000/ego.html' target=_blank>here[/url] and <a href='http://www.antiqueradio.com/Apr05_Menta_mp3.html' target=_blank>here[/url]. The price was a bit expensi've, at the cost of $000 for a GB Microdri've the eGo had the ability to have 2 dri'ves inside, yes 2 dri'ves. So the player itself was well over $2000. In the 2000 Academy Awards, nominees were given a 2GB eGo in thier gift bag, but this company eventually folded due to its high price.
Read more on the PJB00 here: <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Jukebox' target=_blank>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Jukebox[/url]
But a year or so later Rio and Creative came out with their first hard dri've players, and eventually survi'ved. But many years later Creative is still standing strong with their MP3 player business while many others have failed. Good job Message Edited by DM on 09-07-2005 2:9 PM

Very Noisy Super Drive

Hi All,
I just got a new iMac 24" (replacement for a lemon 20") and the disc drive seems to be extremely loud (much louder than my previous 2 iMacs) not only when ingesting and ejecting a disc but also when searching and reading. Any thoughts?

I just got a 24" iMac and it works great but with DVDs, the noise from the disk drive is so loud that I can't even watch movies. It's too annoying. Last night I used a book and a t shirt to press up against the drive to try to muffle the sound. Do I just return the iMac? I'm ******!

NOISY HARD DRIVE, CLUNKING OUT OF SLEEP

The HD is generally silent except when coming out of sleep, during which you get a fair amount of definitely mechanical clunking and clattering from the unit as it spins up. Once up and running, all noise aside from perhaps the normal slight hum/whir, are gone.
I'm fairly sure that it's done this for as long as I've had this new iMac, is not getting any worse, and hasn't so far caused any other sorts of problems at all. I suppose I might be looking for some warm 'n fuzzy feedback saying that it's no biggie, nothing to be that concerned about.
In the meantime, I keep everything backed up to two external drives and am willing to ping AppleCare on it, at least to get the problem registered with them. Any other good advice?
TIA.

Try running the Disk utility application found in the utilities folder to see if it reports any errors when you verify the disk and check permissions. Disk Utility will also report the SMART status indicating whether the drive error parameters indicate it is in a failing state that would require replacement. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. for more info regarding the capabilities of SMART. The smartest thing you mentioned is that you maintain a backup. I too maintain two separate backups just in case.

NOISY HARD DRIVE UNIT

Have just had this i7 for a few days now and in a quiet room, the humming noise from the unit is very noticeable. Is this a common fault? Is there a test that can be performed at home or do I have to send the unit back to apple. I'd rather not do this but any suggestions are most welcome.
T12

Aunty June, you will probably not believe this, BUT, I had placed the mac on a wooden table about 6feet x 3' 6", in size. I replaced this with a smaller table about 3' 6" x 2' 6" with a laminate top and sturdier legs. Hey presto, humming is reduced dramatically. Maybe it is that the machine just needs a very firm foundation upon which to rest. Alternatively, could the stand be causing the problem?
seems to me that the stand may be adequate for the smaller imac but needs to be improved, to cope with the additional weight which it carries on the 27" machine. Any thoughts??
Kind regards,
T12.

Getting data off a (very) old hard drive

I'm a personal assistant and have just been handed a closet full of old Apple IIci with instructions to get everything off the drives and then junk them.
I am at a loss. I was just going to grab a box of floppies from one of the local computer stores but after being giggled at a few times when I called to ask if anybody carried them I'm wondering if there's another way to do this. I think he also wants to be able to see what is ON them and doesn't have a floppy drive which puts a bit of a damper on the convenience of that idea.
Any and all suggestions welcome!

First of all, in order to avoid any confusion with the older Apple II series, please confirm that you are referring to the Macintosh IIci.
Are the Macintosh IIci computers fully functional (complete with monitors)? Could you perhaps give us some details about the operating system(s) used? Information about file types, programs et cetera could be useful, too.
One can use standard 1.44 MB HD diskettes with the IIci. It is also possible to carry out transfers via one of the serial ports. If at least one of the IIci machines has an Ethernet card installed, a connection to an Ethernet-based network could be another option.
Do you have access to a semi-old Mac, a modern Mac, or possibly only a PC? One could per se connect an external USB floppy drive to a modern computer, but there may be other limitations that will have to be taken into account.
Jan

Time machine with 10.5 Server (+thrashing external hard drive)

I run MacOS server to provide support for a small group of collaborators -- mainly via SVN and Wikis, as well as a static website that is publicly accessible, all running off a Mac Mini.
I want to use Time Machine to keep a backup, so I can quickly get up and running if anything goes wrong.
However, when Time Machine is switched on, it seems to spend an inordinate amount of time thrashing the external hard drive (a 1GB in a separate enclosure, connected via Firewire). Looking at top shows du using ~70% of one of the cores on the Mini, and the thrashing lasts for 20 or 30 minutes at a time, even though very little has changed on the server (the wikis get updated at most once a day, and the website gets visit a 10s of times in 24 hours).
Turning off time machine silences du (and the somewhat noisy hard drive)
Any suggestions (or tips for using Time Machine to back up a server in general -- once I get this sorted I plan to test that I can actually recover the server from the backup and install on a new machine)

Turns out that the thrashing was due to Sharepoint; but it was only an issue when time machine was running (so far as I can see). Am still checking that the problem does not come back, but will mark this as solved.

How to set up iTunes with an external hard drive so that there is not a double location for the iTunes Media folder

Hi,
A very helpful postee got to the end of his knowledge level, so I am posting this for you tech guys to sort out. Bit long because I've tried to set it out step by step. Briefly I'm new to iTunes and my laptop has a very small hard drive and is virtually full and due to be replaced. So I want to use an external hard drive.
Now I know that iTunes installs itself to two locations: 1. Programs Files 2. Music. And its the Music location that bothers me.
I asked about using an external hard disk to store the actual AAC files. I was advised that in order to change the loaction of the iTunes media folder I was should employ preferences/advanced/ and this is what i saw (as you would expect):
Then I hooked up my hard drive, hit 'change', and this is what I saw:
I was a bit worried by the lack of pathway details, but assumed it must have done something on the external drive, so I looked on it and this is what i saw (highlighted):
But compare this with what was in the directory I attempted to reproduce, viz in the iTunes folder in /laptop/Music/iTunes:
A ton of stuff. The only stuff that corresponded with what iTunes had created on my external hard drive was in Music/iTunes/iTunes Media folder:
Now this suggests that there are TWO locations for my preferences. The advanced tab only allowed me to ADD an extra location, not REPLACE the original.
So:
1. Which of the two locations will iTunes choose when I add music? Surely it will go with the original pathway laid down in the directory when iTunes was installed, and ignore my external Hard Drive? I mean, how can there be two automatic locations?!!!
2.. I don't mind itunes library being on my laptop as this is just a list, but it obvoiusly has to have a pathway to the site where the actual AAC files are stored.
so surely it won't work unless the whole lot is on the external hard drive: library, extras, genius, the lot?
4. How then do I get it all on the external since merely changing "preferences" doesn't do the job?
5. Is this perhaps the reason why so many people report that iTunes does not recognize their external hard disk:
http://www.ehow.com/info_12199596_external-hard-drive-not-recognized-itun es.html
I just don't want this to happen to me. Any answers?
Philip Joy
UNITED KINGDOM

As I've replied to your other threads...
Easy method 1:
Move or Copy entire working library from current location to the root of your external drive. Press & hold down shift (option on a Mac) as you click the icon to start iTunes. Click Choose when prompted, then browse to ..\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl on the external. If you copied the library across then test your new library works properly after renaming the original folder, before deleting the original folder to recover space.
Easy method 2:
If you haven't really started to build your library. Press & hold down shift as you click the icon to start iTunes. Click Create. Browse to the root of the external drive. Create the library as ITunes. Drag your media into ..\iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes.
Complex method:
Required if you've already tried other things and now have media & library scattered around. See the post make a split library portable.
in addition...
In all cases the idea is to get a library folder called iTunes containing a media folder called iTunes Media with all media inside this media folder. Once you have the library in this shape it is easy to reconnect to the library with the shift-start-iTunes method if the drive letter changes, move the library to another computer, and backup the library by cloning the folder to another drive.
tt2

Very noisy hard drive on 8460p

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